- YET the faint breeze oft flags on listless wings,
- Nor tremulates the coco’s airiest arch, [205]
- While the red sun darts deluges of fire;
- And soon (if on the gale thy crop depend,)
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Will all thy hopes of opulence defeat.
- “INFORMER of the planetary train!”1
- Source undiminished of all-cheering light, [210]
- Of roseat beauty, and heart-gladning joy!
- Fountain of being, on whose water broods
- The organic spirit, principle of life!
- Lord of the seasons! who in courtly pomp
- Lacquay2 thy presence, and with glad dispatch, [215]
- Pour at thy bidding, o’er the land and sea!
- Parent of Vegetation, whose fond grasp
- The Sugar-Cane displays; and whose green car
- Soft-stealing dews, with liquid pearls adorn’d,
- Fat-fostering rains, and buxom genial airs [220]
- Attend triumphant! Why, ah why so oft,
- Why hath Antigua, sweetly social isle,
VER. 222. Why hath Antigua] This beautiful island lies in 16 degrees and 14 min. N. lat. It was long uninhabited on account of its wanting fresh-water rivers; but is now more fully peopled, and as well cultivated as any of the leeward islands. In a seasonable year, it has made 30,000 hogsheads3 of sugar. It has no very high mountains. The soil is, in general, clayey. The water of the body-ponds4 may be used for every purpose of life. Antigua is well fortified, and has a good militia.
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The informer is the sun, and the planetary train is the movement of the planets across the sky. Gilmore identifies the source of this quotation as James Thomson’s The Seasons (1730). ↩︎
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Attend, wait upon. ↩︎
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A hogshead was a large cask used to hold and ship sugar. One hogshead of sugar weighed about 1500 lbs. Thus, 30,000 hogsheads represents more than 20,000 tons. ↩︎
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A watershed in Antigua. ↩︎